As a die hard England/ Beckham fan, Wednesday was a tough day for me. Watching this team, who had everything to play for; only needing a draw to qualify for Europe's biggest tournament, lose to a team with nothing to play for is unbelievably shocking. I still cant believe England will not participate in Euro 2008. It seems fitting that McClaren ends his tenure as England Manager the way he started it: making mind bogling decision. His latest and last mistep was benching Beckham again and starting a rookie goal keeper in the most important game in English Football. I think after watching the womens world cup final most people would know the importance of having an experienced goal keeper minding the nets in a big game. Not this genius. He gave Scott Carlson his first ever England start and he played AWFUL!
Then he benches a man that constantly performs everytime he puts on the England shirt. For all his supposed flaws, Beckham has set up goals in every game he has played this year for England.
When Macca took him off the field he sealed his fate. For non soccer fans, ill try to put this into perpective. England not going to the Euros is like the 1992 Dream Team not qualifying for the Olympics. I could blog about this in further detail but I think Ill let the english fans speak on this. Here are some posts by devastated fans around the world that pretty much share my feelings on this subject.........
.....how can people still doubt David Beckham? Anyone who has played football knows how difficult a ball like that is to play. ...and yes, SWP could do that......COULD, but DIDN'T... Beckham does it everytime he puts an England shirt on, nobody else does. I agree, he is not quite the player he was, but still performs when it matters - another thing that no other player seems capable of doing (Crouch's performance yesterday excepted). Are you Beckham haters blind or do you simply not understand what makes a decent footballer? It's not what they can or can't do in theory, it's what they actually do on the pitch. Even with an unfit Beckham, he still makes the game changing deliveries.
.....Beckham and Crouch were the heroes last game, but even they could not manage to stop the disaster unfolded on Wembley. there were mistakes, stupid mistakes and from the only one man.McClaren beckham should have been from the first second on the pitch not from the second half
......Wow, there's so much to comment on where to begin...
Well first, let's pin the blame. It falls not on McClaren (despite his complete ineptitude) but the people who selected him for the job. What were they thinking??? They recruited someone whose sum achievements count as one League cup victory against Bolton. Yes please re-read that last sentence. How did this man win the most important job in English football?
You can't blame a man for taking his dream job (not to mention dream salary) but the blame falls squarely on those that made such a categoric error for English football. Heads should roll.. preferably literally.
What is SO frustrating as a football fan is that you really don't have to be the slightest bit intelligent to realise that a crucial match at home against good opposition when you need only a draw is not a good time to experiment with a new goalie (and sympathies to the lad who must have felt the pressure, but he was AWFUL. Robinson, for his flaws, would have kept out all three goals.) This tactical catastrophe simply should not be allowed to happen if the selectors;
a) knew a damn thing about football
b) recognised someone who knew a damn thing about football.
On the show of football tonight you could really go up the drunkest fan in any bar, and I'd honestly rather see him pick the team. At least he might have the good sense to pick Beckham from the start who, despite the odd dip in form (normally over hyped dip in form - just 'cos he doesn't score from every free kick doesn't make him a liability) has proven his match-winning potential, work ethic and bulldog spirit time and time again.
The fact is we;re not as good as we think we are, but the sooner we realise that a manager is the most important 'player' there is, and move to secure one worthy of the job, the sooner we'll finally be able to challenge for the big tournament. Personally i'm almost relieved that i don't have to waste my summer watching this mis-managed team struggle through the group stages only to fall at the first penalty shoot out.
Normally as an England fan I have some sense of injustice to complain about but this time I can honestly say we don't deserve to qualify... nowhere near. It's a great shame for the players who are getting a bit older and probably won't have a chance to compete for these titles again. As an England fan all I can say is that the time under McClaren has been wasted and detrimental and someone should take responsibility for this.
We've the fourth biggest economy in the world, 60 million people, a wealth of talented players, enough money to employ any manager we like and yet we're outplayed - considerably - by a country of less than 5 million people who had nothing to play for. How proud I could be if only I was born in Croatia.
Then he benches a man that constantly performs everytime he puts on the England shirt. For all his supposed flaws, Beckham has set up goals in every game he has played this year for England.
When Macca took him off the field he sealed his fate. For non soccer fans, ill try to put this into perpective. England not going to the Euros is like the 1992 Dream Team not qualifying for the Olympics. I could blog about this in further detail but I think Ill let the english fans speak on this. Here are some posts by devastated fans around the world that pretty much share my feelings on this subject.........
.....how can people still doubt David Beckham? Anyone who has played football knows how difficult a ball like that is to play. ...and yes, SWP could do that......COULD, but DIDN'T... Beckham does it everytime he puts an England shirt on, nobody else does. I agree, he is not quite the player he was, but still performs when it matters - another thing that no other player seems capable of doing (Crouch's performance yesterday excepted). Are you Beckham haters blind or do you simply not understand what makes a decent footballer? It's not what they can or can't do in theory, it's what they actually do on the pitch. Even with an unfit Beckham, he still makes the game changing deliveries.
.....Beckham and Crouch were the heroes last game, but even they could not manage to stop the disaster unfolded on Wembley. there were mistakes, stupid mistakes and from the only one man.McClaren beckham should have been from the first second on the pitch not from the second half
......Wow, there's so much to comment on where to begin...
Well first, let's pin the blame. It falls not on McClaren (despite his complete ineptitude) but the people who selected him for the job. What were they thinking??? They recruited someone whose sum achievements count as one League cup victory against Bolton. Yes please re-read that last sentence. How did this man win the most important job in English football?
You can't blame a man for taking his dream job (not to mention dream salary) but the blame falls squarely on those that made such a categoric error for English football. Heads should roll.. preferably literally.
What is SO frustrating as a football fan is that you really don't have to be the slightest bit intelligent to realise that a crucial match at home against good opposition when you need only a draw is not a good time to experiment with a new goalie (and sympathies to the lad who must have felt the pressure, but he was AWFUL. Robinson, for his flaws, would have kept out all three goals.) This tactical catastrophe simply should not be allowed to happen if the selectors;
a) knew a damn thing about football
b) recognised someone who knew a damn thing about football.
On the show of football tonight you could really go up the drunkest fan in any bar, and I'd honestly rather see him pick the team. At least he might have the good sense to pick Beckham from the start who, despite the odd dip in form (normally over hyped dip in form - just 'cos he doesn't score from every free kick doesn't make him a liability) has proven his match-winning potential, work ethic and bulldog spirit time and time again.
The fact is we;re not as good as we think we are, but the sooner we realise that a manager is the most important 'player' there is, and move to secure one worthy of the job, the sooner we'll finally be able to challenge for the big tournament. Personally i'm almost relieved that i don't have to waste my summer watching this mis-managed team struggle through the group stages only to fall at the first penalty shoot out.
Normally as an England fan I have some sense of injustice to complain about but this time I can honestly say we don't deserve to qualify... nowhere near. It's a great shame for the players who are getting a bit older and probably won't have a chance to compete for these titles again. As an England fan all I can say is that the time under McClaren has been wasted and detrimental and someone should take responsibility for this.
We've the fourth biggest economy in the world, 60 million people, a wealth of talented players, enough money to employ any manager we like and yet we're outplayed - considerably - by a country of less than 5 million people who had nothing to play for. How proud I could be if only I was born in Croatia.
1 comment:
He was offside on that second goal man.
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